


Daughter Of Air

by FairyQueen (etoilecourageuse)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Community: hp_silencio, Dark Mark, Gen, Loneliness, Post-War, Protection, Second War with Voldemort, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-10
Updated: 2015-01-10
Packaged: 2018-03-07 00:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3154118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilecourageuse/pseuds/FairyQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing Andromeda saw the night she slipped away from home was her sweet sister Narcissa receiving the Dark Mark. Years later, it's still the one thing keeping them apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Daughter Of Air

She had been given the order to stay in her room once night had fallen, to keep the door locked and never to leave, never to open the window. She had been given the order never to enter the forest that bordered her family’s property, as a child and even now, and she had obeyed. Had always obeyed and not asked questions in the foolish belief that it all was merely for her own protection.  
  
Until tonight, tonight when she’d made a decision that would change everything, tonight when she would finally break free, turn away from what she feared and despised and never look back.  
  
He would be waiting for her by the church, and before dawn broke they’d be husband and wife, never to be separated again until the end of their lives. Before dawn broke, she would lose her mother, would lose her sisters. Before dawn broke she would be gone, never to return.  
  
Andromeda had always feared the forest, for a reason she did not understand, she would always steer clear of it, even without her parents’ order. Now she found herself amidst the woods, walking as though she had gone into a trance, as though to bid her farewell to a place that terrified her beyond belief. The trees seemed to whisper to her, seemed to clear her mind, tIo help her focus on the things that at this moment truly mattered. She would leave everything behind, would never see those again that had once been most important to her.  
It was her only chance to be happy, her only chance to strive for something her sisters had long given up. Even Narcissa, who had always been a dreamer, constantly reaching for the stars, was no longer the same; she seemed to have lost any hope for a self-determined life in the moment she had sworn eternal faithfulness to Lucius Malfoy. Andromeda knew that she loved him, knew that he, too, loved her, but sometimes love was not enough.  
  
Perhaps it was a mistake. Perhaps it was foolish and craven to leave in the dead of the night, perhaps it would be easiest to accept her fate and go on, living the life she was destined to live. But Andromeda would gladly call herself a fool, only to be with him, to be with Ted, her Ted alone. She knew the cost for her happiness, and she was willing to pay the price.  
  
It was not until she reached a small glade that Andromeda seemed to wake from whatever had held her captured, not a moment too soon. She wasn’t alone in the forest as assumed. One step further and she would have been discovered.  
  
Andromeda wanted to turn around, wanted to turn away and run, just run and forget about the forest, forget about what she had caught a glimpse of, but there she stood, hidden behind a tree, as though she were paralysed, terrified by the sight.  
  
She could see Cissy, her beautiful sister Narcissa, kneeling on the forest floor surrounded by hooded figures, her long, blonde hair falling down her back, reflecting the moon light. She could see Bella standing right next to her, appearing even taller than usual, and smiling a strange, sinister smile, could see Lucius unobtrusively stroking over her back… And she could see her parents outside the eerie circle, watching what seemed to be a ceremony with a stoic, nearly disturbing calm.  
  
Narcissa’s face contorted with pain, her lips formed a silent scream, the wand she’d been desperately holding in her right hand slipped from her fingers Barely a second later the circle dissolved. Nobody caught her when her body weakly sank to the ground.  
  
Andromeda could feel hot tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, wanted nothing more than to help her, to hold her, to comfort her, to understand what they had done to her… But she wouldn’t move, didn’t dare…  
  
Only briefly she caught a glimpse of her sister’s forearm, felt as though her heart had stopped beating as she saw the black skull blemishing Narcissa’s white skin, the snake that seemed to hiss at her… Andromeda bit her lip in order to suppress a gasp, shook her head in disbelief, over and over again… And began to run.  
  


  
***

  
  
  
_Twenty-five years later._  
  
The war was over. It sometimes seemed impossible to believe that everything had come to an end, that they were at peace now… The war was over. Yet the emptiness remained.  
  
Andromeda had long ceased to cry. Only in her weakest moments she would still sense a single tear falling from her eye, but she wouldn’t bother brushing it away. For the second time in her life she had lost everything important to her, lost everyone she loved, yet for the first time she was alone.  
  
Dead. They were all dead, dead and gone, never to return. Only her sister was still alive. Narcissa, who, too, had lost her husband in the war, Narcissa, who had watched Bellatrix fall in battle, incapable of saving her.  
  
Andromeda had not spoken to her since the night she had watched the Dark Mark being forcefully burnt into her skin, had run from the forest and never came back, desperately attempting to ban the memory from her mind. But of course it had come back to her, haunting her in her sleep even now, years later. Perhaps her parents had sensed that she was different, that she would never be one of them, and perhaps at first they truly had wanted to protect her. Perhaps…  
  
Of course she missed her. Of course she’d missed them all, but most of all Narcissa, her sweet little Narcissa who had always seemed so fragile and yet so strong, whom she had been able to entrust with anything, anything at all. Except for Ted.  
  
Would she have betrayed her, had she known?  
  
She still saw her sometimes, saw her from far away, restlessly wandering through the streets like a ghost, with her head held high yet unspeakable sadness lying there within her deep blue eyes. Andromeda still saw her sometimes, and sometimes she’d follow her to her home, unrecognised and in secret.  
  
Of course she missed her. Of course she needed her, more than anything else. Of course they needed each other — were they anything they had left of one another. But would she ever look into her eyes again? Would she ever hear her voice again, would she ever touch her, feel her skin beneath her fingers? Would Narcissa ever be able to forgive her?  
  
How beautiful she was still… How graceful, and how dignified, even in times of greatest despair… The war had taken its toll on her, had turned her into a shell, a shadow of her former self, had shown her things that would haunt her into all eternity…  
  
They both had fought, yet on different sides; they both had wept for those they lost, they both had feared, they both had loved… And they both had at some point been forced to question their loyalties. How similar they were, and yet how different.  
  
Andromeda would sometimes watch her sister until long after midnight, would reach out her arm into the emptiness for an embrace that seemed destined never to take place and renew her secret protection spells, despite the awareness that Narcissa had long ceased to care about her reputation, that she had long ceased to care about herself.  
  
People had spat on Narcissa, nearly ripped her cloak apart and then turned away from her as though she were a stranger a moment later, nothing but scorn within their eyes. How many times had Andromeda observed them from far away yet never interfered and how much she despised herself for her cowardice… She knew that one day they would kill her, but she’d never allow her to be harmed, wouldn’t forgive herself if…  
  
Andromeda wouldn’t lose Narcissa, too, even though deep inside she knew that she had lost her long ago, that too much had happened, that some wounds even time was incapable of healing. She would still dream of holding her in her arms just once more, even though she knew that dreams were nothing but shadows. Nothing but delusions.  
  
But even if she sometimes came to her house, even if she watched over her, protected her under any circumstances, Andromeda knew that to Narcissa she would always be invisible. That she would look through her as though she were made of air. That perhaps she had long forgotten about her, and that only in death they would meet again, that only in death, the terrible mark’s scar would fade from her skin. Only in death, they would be reunited at last.


End file.
